


M4RM4L4D3 5K135

by 4RU



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 15:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4569189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4RU/pseuds/4RU
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Gaige became a vault hunter, she was just your average girl born to your average family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	M4RM4L4D3 5K135

His daughter comes into the world nine months after a test confirms his wife is unexpectedly pregnant, wrapped up in soft pinks and yellows as she wails loudly. The birth was a tough one – the child had been breech – but now he is a father after two previously failed attempts at a larger family. He has a wife, weary from the pregnancy and labor, and now he has a healthy baby girl to call his own.

They decide on the name Gaige. Gaige who even at birth looks too much like her mother and nothing at all like her father. But he doesn't mind. He might have wanted a son beforehand, but it is impossible to not fall in love with this little girl who clings to his finger with her entire hand at first sight.

–

Her first word is "daddy". It's not too surprising, and her mother doesn't even look disappointed. As she slowly came away from her newborn days, Gaige has become more and more attached to her father. They had expected that, had been told that boys stick to their mothers and girls to their fathers in the early years, "momma's boy" and "daddy's girl", and Gaige is setting herself up to fall hard into the "daddy's girl" category.

It is her father, not her mother, who is able to soothe her when she accidentally suffers the bumps and bruises that walking and running entails. She goes to him when frightened, when she wants cuddles and comforts. He can coax a laugh from her as easily as a smile, and there is no doubt that Gaige loves him completely. The favoritism even helps him learn their energetic daughter better than his wife.

–

When Gaige finds her way into the kitchen, they don't think much about it. Not until the sounds of crashing pots and pans can be heard. But the sight that greets her father is astonishing in and of itself.

The childproof lock on the cabinet has been thoroughly bypassed by using the arm of one of those little plastic dolls Gaige has taken to carrying around. Not only that, but each pot and pan has been neatly stacked atop one another. It's a crude, basic structure, but the fact that Gaige has learned to get through the lock and get at the cabinets at her impossibly young age is more than enough to warrant surprise.

She cries when he carefully picks up the neat mess his daughter has made, and for the first time she tries to squirm out of his arms. But he simply smiles and murmurs words of praise, putting her down for her afternoon nap after coaxing her into calming down with a sip of warm cocoa and promise that he isn't upset with her. As she sleeps, he retreats into the workshop, cutting blocks of wood in varying sizes and shapes. Squares, rectangles, triangles, and all other matter of building blocks are made and sanded smooth with careful precision.

His unexpected present is met with great enthusiasm when she wakes up. Gaige never touches a doll again.

–

Well before she is a year and a half old, Gaige has begun to read.

He doesn't think much about this – she has been babbling and talking since her first word escaped her tiny mouth. Neither does he know how much of an accomplishment Gaige has made until other parents he knows regards him with surprise when they see that each and every block the child owns has acquired a label of what they are.

Certainly the script is childish and difficult to read, but it is there. The blocks all bear colorful names, varying from "square" to "arch". Most even sport little drawings to accompany them.

Questions about how he had managed to teach his daughter to read and write so early are shrugged off easily. - he honestly doesn't know that it isn't a normal occurrence for a child to do so at that age.

–

Much as with Gaige's reading, he teaches her basic math once he spies her frowning at the involved symbols over an educational program.

It's easy enough, she already knows her numbers. So he sits her down at the little kiddie table she has taken to scribbling on and pulls out some marshmallows. From there, he teaches her the wonders of addition and subtraction, and she soaks it up eagerly. Of course, several marshmallows are "subtracted" out of existence, but they both giggle and enjoy the lessons anyway. She learns at an astonishing rate, taking to the two most basic functions as quickly as she has learned to read.

Not long after she has grown comfortable writing math problems out does he teach her multiplication and division. These take Gaige a small amount of time to wrap her tiny mind around understanding, but in the end he is not at all disappointed.

She loves math. Far more than she loves reading. It becomes harder and harder to coax her into bedtime stories when she makes it plain she'd rather do one of those color-by-number pages, or sing her times tables to sleep.

–

Unlike many children who fuss and misbehave at the store, Gaige is surprisingly well-mannered. She sits in the cart and only squirms to swing her legs about cheerfully, giggling when she hits her father and he makes a funny noise, crying out in dramatic pain. She could walk next to him, if she wished, but it's more fun to have him push her around, making car noises up and down the isles. Instead of insisting on running around herself, Gaige is more than content to do so with her father.

Not to mention she's a very accomplished helper.

Stores, as it turns out, are an excellent learning tool. He gives her the shopping list her mother has constructed and trusts her to tell him what it needed – after she goes through the pain of alphabetizing it, a habit Gaige doesn't seem to be growing out of anytime soon. Some of the words are too big for her to say on her own, but she sounds them out as carefully as she can, and he helps when she grows too frustrated. Then comes the matter of finding the item written down, which he does have to assist with.

The best part, to her, is comparing prices. Learning her numbers and math has evolved into learning values, greater than or less than. Gaige doesn't understand money just yet, but she knows the basics of decimals, and that is more than ample enough for her to practice with.

So when he asks her to find the smallest amount on a select group, she is able to do so with little to no hesitation. He even blocks out the display at the cashier (much to either the amusement or annoyance of the person tending), letting her solve how much cash back he'd receive after paying a certain amount.

–

School is an endeavor that is equally fun and hard for Gaige. Having a natural curiosity and love to learn puts her right at home in class. Being around a group of children who can't understand or accept differences is a great strain or her self-esteem.

Bullying happens, as he well knows, but it doesn't ease his conscious to know that his daughter is being picked on just because she happens to be a little smarter than the other kids. There are meetings, concerned words shared in a professional environment, but nothing he does seems to help.

When Gaige comes home with tears in her eyes he can't think of what else to do other than scoop her up into her arms and comfort her with words and butterfly kisses. It helps her mood, marginally, and she goes from being limp to clinging to him tightly.

Instead of heading home, he takes her to the store and lets her pick out a new toy, hoping it might ease the pain.

For once, instead of some variation of building blocks, she settles on some action figure from one of her favorite superhero vids, a robotic monstrosity of sorts. And when they take it to the cashier, the woman looks upon her with bafflement, wondering aloud why on Eden a little girl would want a scary action figure instead of a nice doll.

Before he can formulate a response to rebuke the ignorant woman, Gaige speaks up, her voice suddenly cheerful to discuss one of her favorite characters.

"He's a hero- like daddy."

This response is so astonishing that it shocks both the adults to silence, even as he feels the swell of pride rising in his chest. The cashier rings them up, and that night Gaige sleeps with the new toy resting on the other side of her pillow.

–

He gets a call from Gaige's teacher right before suppertime. It's a change – Gaige's teachers never call unless it's in relation to the ongoing bullying incident. But this news is not bad as it is... surprising.

Apparently, his daughter had found a higher level math book left over from one of the older students and solved a few of the problems on her own. Without a calculator. Which to him is news about as shocking as being told that the sky is blue.

The problems, though, were all multiplication, and he chuckles gently into the receiver as the teacher continues rambling on. "Ma'am, if you actually paid attention or cared about your students, you'd've realized that Gaige has been doing even long division since she first sat in your class at the very beginning of the year."

It's slightly bitter – he still hasn't forgiven the teacher over the unresolved bullying – and when the woman protests he just hangs up without another word.

–

"Why don't you like squares?" He asks one evening, watching his daughter scribble out some new architectural design on paper. Instead of outright building it with her trusty blocks, she had learned that grown-ups drew what they wanted to build first and adopted the process for herself. Her lines were messy and uneven, but on the paper there is nary a square to be seen.

She pouts her lips at him. "Triangles are better."

To prove he isn't upset or disappointed, he smiles and pats her head, making a show of cramping into one of the little plastic seats at her table. "Why are they better?" The question is spoken with as much honest curiosity as he can manage.

"Squares are all wobbly." Tellingly, because she feels she has to prove this point, Gaige picks up a few straws she had bent together into a square, offering it to her father. At her instruction he pushes on it, feeling the shape yield.

He nods to show she was right. "Okay. Squares are wobbly. But why does that make triangles better?"

As he knew she would, Gaige bends straws into a triangle, and trades him for the square. Without having to be told, he tries to push on it, and makes a considerable show of surprise when it remains sturdy. She giggles at his antics, then tries to force herself back into a state of childish seriousness.

"Triangles aren't wobbly."

For a long moment he regards his daughter, and then stands and leans in, brushing his lips to his child's forehead. He admits how right she is, and leaves after sharing a cup of hot cocoa with plenty of marshmallows with her.

–

Their toaster is an old machine, and it breaks on them during breakfast one morning. He sighs and gives it a cursory look-over, then declares it to be a lost cause.

Before he can toss it away, Gaige closes her tiny fingers around the hem of his shirt and tugs, getting his attention. When she asks for the toaster, he regards her curiously but gives it over after warning her to be careful. Gaige promises she will and takes her heavy burden to her room, grinning in excitement.

He doesn't notice that some of his tools go missing as the days go by. Eventually, the broken toaster vanishes from his memory, and life returns to normal.

–

Instead of going out to play like most children, Gaige makes it known that she prefers to stay indoors. This worries both him and his wife, but because most of her time is spent constructively with a mixture of math and playing with her blocks they cannot fault her for her decision.

Why would they fuss at her to play with children who tease her, anyway? It would be more of a punishment than anything.

Eventually, he sighs at the sight of his daughter bent over more of her doodles, as pale as death, and knocks on her doorframe to get her attention. "Baby girl? Why don't you come help me out with the car? Your hands are a lot smaller than mine."

It works. Gaige gets up and follows him outdoors, where he teaches her the basics of an oil change. It's simple, and messy, and they get covered in oil and grease before it's done. Then he ropes her into helping him wash the machine, equally cleaning themselves as well as the car. Gaige laughs and giggles, and he grins at the sight of her rosy - sunburnt - cheeks.

Before they go indoors for ice cream, she pauses and gestures to the car. "Daddy? What's that?"

He turns to where she points, and taps the object of interest. "That's the front axle."

"Oh." She purses her lips. "What's it do?"

"It's connects the front wheels to the steering column."

"What's a steering column?"

Patiently, he answers all of her questions, and by the time she runs out of them they have both acquired a good, painful burn.

–

By using a stepping stool (she hasn't hit a growth spurt yet), Gaige is able to access the top counter and the contents of the refrigerator. Whenever he spots her clambering around on it, he warns her to be careful, and she always smiles and insists she will, though there are times she makes a small tumble or knocks her shins.

It's mechanical, how he sees her bustling about to make her own snack. And his mind is so far elsewhere that he doesn't realize that he's smelling toast until he's halfway out the kitchen and the toast pops up into Gaige's waiting hand.

Surprised, he turns, regarding his daughter with a critical eye. But she only hums and applies jam to the blackened bread, putting it onto a plate and taking it to the table to eat.

"...you fixed the toaster?" He asks after a minute or so has passed, unable to recall ever actually purchasing a new one.

Gaige looks up at him with innocent green eyes, nodding behind a mouthful of toast. "Uh-huh. It had a loose wire." She smiles, positively beaming at him. "I put your tools back where I got 'em, daddy."

"How about that," he murmurs, not able to ignore how uneasy he suddenly feels. Still, he thanks his daughter for her hard work, and kisses her forehead before continuing on with his daily routine.

–

"Hon," he murmurs, laying awake in bed next to his wife. "I think our baby girl might be a genius."

–

Computers are a well-integrated part of life. He doesn't much like or use the one in the house, but Gaige takes to it the moment she is allowed. When she's not messing with her plans and whatever science is interesting her at the moment, she is on the computer, tapping away furiously and not even looking at her fingers.

He watches her, sometimes, but mostly leaves her be. Unless he's working in the garage, in which case he invites her to join him – an invitation Gaige never turns down.

It is during her middle school years when she comes indoors and sourly hands him a note, indicating that a meeting with her programming teacher has been called and he is to attend.

"Honey," he says calmly, watching her look away uneasily. "Are you in trouble?"

The girl frowns and kicks at the tiled floor. "No," under her father's glare, she wilts. "Maybe? I mean it's not like it's anything they can prove I did-!"

He sighs and sends her off to her room. The guilty admission is enough.

At the meeting, the teacher is all in a tizzy, and he can see Gaige in the corner of the room trying her very best not to smile or laugh, the principal oblivious as he attempts to mediate the meeting.

"That little sneak hacked into the school mainframe! I don't know how she did it, but she did! I have proof!" The teacher's "proof", as it turns out, is a screencap of a window constantly moving, flashing the message "KISS MY ASYMPTOTE" over and over again.

The principal's patience is more thin than his own, it seems. The old man sighs and comments how that message appeared on every computer in the building at the same time and for exactly three minutes before dissipating. When they discovered a signature of sorts embedded into the programing, it was just an ASCII anarchy symbol.

But since they cannot actually prove Gaige is behind the message, she gets off without so much as a slap on the wrist. Her dad checks her out early, and looks at her before starting the car.

"You hacked the school computer just to do that?" He asks, disbelieving in how childishly harmless she had chosen to be with such an access.

Gaige is unrepentant as she grins. "Well, yeah. It's not like I could change the bourgeois bastards' grades to all zeros. That would be like painting a giant failure on my permanent record, and unlike them I actually do plan to do something awesome with my life."

He chuckles, reaching over to ruffle her messy red hair affectionately. "That's my girl."

In reward, he treats her to hot chocolate at the local coffee shop, and they wage fork wars over the marshmallows.

–

The start of puberty in a no-longer-preteen daughter is an awkward time for any father, he assumes. Gaige is maturing from the awkward kid she used to be into a rather lovely young lady. Even he has to admit that she got lucky with her mother's genes as far as the looks department was concerned.

But with the whole maturity thing comes the deep rooted fear that she is going to begin dating soon, that there will be boys and girls sucking face with his daughter. It's an overprotective father thing, he knows, but he also knows a lot of teens her age are just cruel and he doesn't want his baby girl to get hurt in a way he cannot help. He worries about all the things parents tend to worry about, the prospect of a boy or girlfriend, that there will be sex, late parties, and drugs, of driving accidents when she gets her license.

It's something he can't help – he is a father and we wants to protect her from all the cruelties the world has to offer.

Yet, as time wears on, he comes to realize something startling unique about Gaige that is so utterly different from what he's been told to expect from girls her age.

There are no girlhood crushes. Not even a dirty magazine to be had.

Instead, Gaige's room is filled with posters of cars and frigates, mechanical wonders and clippings, engineering marvels. She even has a small folder filled with images of giant robots, robotic prostheses, androids, cyborgs, and famously old vids containing all of the above.

In short, Gaige is firmly uninterested in anything that is not made of metal.

He thinks it might be a phase, something that will go away as she gets older. But it never does. After a while, he comes to realize and accept that his daughter is the biggest, most passionate technophile on Eden-5.

–

"Dad? Can I talk to you?" It's an innocent inquiry, one that gets him to put the burner on low before he inadvertently burned supper.

"Sure thing, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"

Despite what he might (secretly) think, it's not the groundbreaking news that she does have a secret boy or girlfriend that she has approached him with, but a different concern altogether.

"Okay," and that is the beginning of a long-winded tirade if he's ever heard one. The stove gets turned entirely off so he can listen. "So. I looked into the classes for high school. You know, the required stuff. Things I have to do in order to get my diploma, all that. Anyway, I was looking, and I realized- I already know everything in their roster. Literally, everything. There is absolutely nothing that high school can teach me that I didn't get, like, five years ago. Except the arts but, psh, the arts are stupid and boring and all the rich kids hang out there. And anyway I really, really, really don't want to spend the next four years falling asleep through pussy math and science while my teachers bitch and moan how I need to pay attention despite the fact that my GPA is one point from perfection."

He gives her a quick warning about the foul language, but nods, understanding the truth behind her words. Gaige had been farther ahead for a very long time, slowly teaching herself her own areas of interest through the 'net. But it doesn't offer much by way of a resolution to her current problem.

"Aright, honey. What's the solution I'm sure you've already thought of?"

There was the hesitant pause, the biting of her lip. When she spits it out, it comes so quickly that it takes him a moment to pull her words apart. "Can I take college courses registered under your – or mom's – name?"

Wisely, he doesn't give her an immediate answer. "I'll talk with your mother about it." She thanks him, and kisses his cheek, then skips away to do whatever it was she had been doing in the shed.

There's much to talk about, that evening. But the end result is clear. Who are they to fault their daughter for wanting to learn?

In a month, Gaige signs up for her first online classes in technical science and calculus after passing the placement tests with a perfect score. No one suspects that it is not a middle-aged man, but his thirteen year old daughter who is really behind the student account.

–

If there is one thing in this world he is of the firm opinion he will never understand, it is teens and their taste in music.

It has to be a curse, he swears. How else could his sweet daughter have fallen victim to punk rock and metal? But Gaige loves it and he doesn't voice his objections when she adds cartoon skulls and blood-stained smiley faces to her collection of metal robots on the wall. She even pierces her own ears, sticks a bolt through the hole, and calls it a day.

But just because her fashion sense and her taste in music is terrible does not mean he can lord his status as father over her and make her stop. It's not affecting her usual energetically kind disposition, and that's all he could have ever hoped for. Even as she plays air guitar in her room and he groans and invests in a pair of earplugs to block out the racket.

He loves his daughter unconditionally, but there are just some things he has resigned to accept that will forever be a mystery.

–

High school is an uneventful transition. Gaige makes the shift smoothly, other students do not. She learns the new building, hacks into the computer system no less than three times, and perfects the art of changing into her gym clothes as quick as physically possible. All within the first week.

It's boring, she has to admit, except now she gets to work on her college assignments while sitting through algebra class – robotics is far more interesting, anyway.

She tells her father about her days, and he listens with interest, ignoring how her mouth has begun to fall more and more towards the filthy range of the spectrum. She doesn't talk that way to adults, and that's all he can ask for.

But he's begun to worry again- the bullying makes a return, and Gaige is as isolated from everyone else as ever. According to her teachers, the most she ever speaks is during her politics classes when the class is actively participating in a debate. It's not a change, Gaige has always been more quiet than most, but he had begun to hope that maybe she would make more friends.

That hope is shattered the afternoon she comes home seething about a new classmate named Marcy Holloway.

–

For the first time ever, Gaige open admits to hating someone.

It's strange, and just not at all an aspect of her personalty. His daughter is sweet and tolerant, not openly critical of another. He assumes it's a crush she has, and Gaige looks at him with such disgusted horror when he tells her so that he immediately regrets the words and has to knock on her door with an offering of hot cocoa and muffins before she even thinks about forgiving him for it.

Lesson learned. It's not a crush. It is genuine hatred.

As time passes and Gaige tells him more and more about Marcy, he begins to understand why his daughter might dislike this other girl so much.

Marcy, it seems, it a snobbish child who has never known the value of working for an achievement. She is the daughter of the richest man on Eden-5, she knows that she is the daughter of the richest man on Eden-5, and she is always willing to remind you that she is the daughter of the richest man on Eden-5. Naturally, this allows Marcy to get away with outrageous behavior. She is a bully, as Gaige has bruises to attest from when she had been shoved painfully down to the ground. Not only that, but she is also a cheat, and Gaige has received several low scores on her papers after Marcy accused her of plagiarizing her work.

But because Marcy is the daughter of the richest man on Eden-5, there is nothing they can do about it. All of the teachers and staff even have nice bonuses to keep their mouths shut about Marcy's behavior – Gaige has proof of this as well from hacking the school computer again. And due to the fact that her family owns the police force as well, Marcy can literally get away with anything.

It's a horrible situation. But Gaige grits her teeth and endures it to the best of her ability. And he gives her hugs and cocoa to help make high school less of a shitty place for his daughter.

–

"They nominated me for homecoming queen," Gaige mutters one day at the dinner table, pushing vegetables aside with her fork. It might have been happy news, but he knows from her expression alone that it is everything but. "Practical joke. Ha ha, very funny, Gaige the Geek is homecoming queen."

It's cruel, and he has to bite back his temper than anyone would do such a thing to tease his daughter. He calms himself. "What will you do, sweetheart?"

She frowns down at her plate, spearing green with a sharp click of metal hitting porcelain. "I forwarded the notice to Marcy's desk and told her that she needed to reconsider her priorities if she couldn't spell her own stupid name right." But that is not all, and she knows he knows, but it still takes a moment before she's done mutilating plants and she's willing to talk about it. "Two days of in-school suspension for harassing a classmate."

The injustice is so upsetting that he finds himself unable to even finish his own supper. He leaves after a soft excuse, angry at the world and himself for the treatment being thrust upon Gaige's shoulders.

–

Gaige's sixteenth birthday falls upon a Saturday. Without any school to pull her away, he makes it a point to force her awake at nine in the morning, tickling and poking her until she was equally groaning and laughing. But not even that is enough to get her out of bed. So, thus forced to desperate measures, he picks her up and puts her on his back, pajamas, bedhead, and all, marching right off towards the back door.

She whines pitifully at him, sleepily torn between smacking and falling asleep upon his shoulder, but his mood is contagious enough that a smile has touched her lips.

Unlike most teens who get a car, it is a shed that her father presents to her with a flourish. Their old shed that even has a bow on it just for the occasion. But he grins at her and insists that appearances aren't everything, then tells her to fetch the key from his shirt pocket as he bends so she can unlock the door.

Inside, once the light has been turned on, Gaige is greeted with the sight of a workspace, a fully decked-out workspace. There are tools, a bench, plenty of space to do as she pleases, and just about everything she might have ever needed to make a right mess in the back yard.

Naturally, this is all met with great enthusiasm, and she is practically squirming to be put down the moment she lays eyes on her present. She kisses her dad's cheeks, hugs him tightly, and thanks him again and again for such a wonderful birthday surprise.

He smiles, pleased to see his daughter happy again. And when homecoming night rolls around, he knows she's too busy tinkering away to give two shits about the dance or Marcy Holloway.

–

The science fair is a favorite past time of Gaige's. Even back during her beginning years of her education, she has participated in the activity. So when she comes home with the announcement that the planet-wide science fair will be taking place soon, he is unsurprised to know that she has already signed up. What he is surprised to hear, however, is that Marcy Holloway will also be participating.

Gaige can think of nothing else. She comes up with plans upon plans, working away in the shed. Sometimes he can hear her tools, and othertimes he cannot. But the girl is diligent; he only warns her to be careful not to let her grades slip in favor of whatever revenge she has planned.

At the dinner table, she calls her project DT. He doesn't understand the mechanical mumbo jumbo of it at all, but he smiled and encourages her regardless, not at all subtle in his praise. Gaige has made him proud, and would always make him proud. He really could not have asked for a better daughter.

But when he stops by the shed one snowy day, it's hard to keep his surprise in check. When Gaige told him she was building a robot, he never in his life imagined the giant behemoth sitting on her work bench could possibly be the same science fair project she had been fawning over. It seems like the girl had been hiding the true extent of her genius all along.

She shoos him out, fussing about him interrupting whatever it was she was doing, and he recovers enough to smile and set the hot cocoa he brought on the table and make his exit.

–

He likes to think that his daughter is a very sensible person. Certainty, Gaige is as immature as every other eighteen year old girl can be, but she is also a genius – a true engineering genius – and so he had hoped that she might have some shred of common sense.

Except he's underestimated her. Again.

She is bleeding out when he finds her, holding her fingers to what remained of her shoulder as her body steadily made its way into shock. He tries not to look at her arm, discarded almost carelessly on the floor, tries not to let himself get sick, and rushes to Gaige's aid before she blacks out from the blood loss.

The hospital can't reattach her missing limb – the particle saw had damaged its nerves too much. But they manage to still the bleeding and give her the necessary transfusions so she'll live to see another day. Gaige is released in a matter of a couple of hours, and he pointedly ignores the look of triumph upon her face.

That night, when he notices that she has sneaked off to the shed again, he goes to check on her, concerned for her condition and seemingly deteriorating mental state. What he finds is Gaige sitting on her chair, carefully oiling each individual joint of the robotic arm she has constructed upon her return.

The fingers tighten on their own, and as disgusted as he knows he probably should feel, he cannot help but be impressed at the fact that she has constructed a working prosthesis less than twenty-four hours after losing the limb.

–

"I don't feel bad about what happened," she tells him, her voice wavering. She's still crying, a messy affair with blotchy cheeks and dribbling snot, and he doesn't care at all for the state of her, he hugs her all the tighter. "I honestly don't. Does that make me a bad person, daddy?"

It had been an accident, he knew. Gaige had told him everything that had happened, about how DT – Deathtrap – had killed Marcy Holloway after she pushed his daughter during the announcement of Gaige's third place positioning in the science fair. Rigged or not, it had been only insult to injury, and Deathtrap only did what his programming dictated. A simple calibration error had led to the girl exploding; not any ill-placed malice his own daughter might have felt towards her.

And Gaige is getting punished for it. Maybe not from Eden-5's corrupt police force, but she already has the transport ticket. He is never going to see his baby girl again, all because of some stupid little accident.

He can't stop himself from crying, and so he doesn't bother trying.

"No, baby girl. You're not a bad person." But no matter how much he assures her, he can see the doubt all over her face. So he gives her butterfly kisses instead, just like he used to do when she had so much smaller, heaping as much affection on his only child as he can manage. The transport to Pandora calls for all passengers, and he has no choice but to let her go, slipping one final gift into her metal fingers – a picture of them during happier times, taped to a packet of hot cocoa mix.

She's an eighteen year old genius, embarking on a trip to a planet inhabited by psychopaths and Hyperion staff. But he knows she'll be alright; she's got a giant robot bodyguard for protection, after all.


End file.
